Will Wright: EA Pushed for Spore DRM

Will Wright says EA provided the push to include DRM in Spore, “It was a corporate decision.”

Though EA CEO John Riccitiello recently told Gamasutra he personally “hates” the whole DRM concept – specifically, “it can be a bit cumbersome” – Wright claims the decision to implement strict copy protection measures in Spore came primarily from the publisher. Hate is a potent word indeed; but it seems such feelings can be easily overlooked, when it comes to protecting one’s assets from the effects of software piracy.

“It was something I probably should have tuned into more,” Wright said yesterday in an interview with Kotaku. “It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore. They had a plan and the parameters, but now we’re allowing more authentications and working with players to de-authenticate, which makes it more in line like an iTunes.”

Sales of Spore have done well regardless, but the immediate backlash from players over the game’s DRM was substantial. The vitriol was potent enough to cause EA to step back to reassess the situation and loosen the leash a bit.

“I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times,” said Wright about the effect DRM had on players in regards to the game. “For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later.”